Cards

Cards are a common organizing unit for modern user interfaces (UI). At their core, they’re just rectangular containers with borders and padding. However, when utilized properly to group related information, they help users better digest, engage, and navigate through content. This is why most successful dashboard/UI frameworks make cards a core feature of their component library. This article provides an overview of the API that bslib provides to create Bootstrap cards.

Setup code

To demonstrate that bslib cards work outside of Shiny (i.e., in R Markdown, static HTML, etc), we’ll make repeated use of statically rendered htmlwidgets like plotly and leaflet. Here’s some code to create those widgets:

library(bslib)
library(shiny)
library(htmltools)
library(plotly)
library(leaflet)

plotly_widget <- plot_ly(x = diamonds$cut) %>%
  config(displayModeBar = FALSE) %>%
  layout(margin = list(t = 0, b = 0, l = 0, r = 0))

leaflet_widget <- leafletOptions(attributionControl = FALSE) %>%
  leaflet(options = .) %>%
  addTiles()

Shiny usage

Cards work equally well in Shiny. In the examples below, replace plotly_widget with plotlyOutput() and leaflet_widget with leafletOutput() to adapt them for Shiny server-rendered plots/maps.

Hello `card()`

A card() is designed to handle any number of “known” card items (e.g., card_header(), card_body(), etc) as unnamed arguments (i.e., children). As we’ll see shortly, card() also has some useful named arguments (e.g., full_screen, height, etc).

At their core, card() and card items are just an HTML div() with a special Bootstrap class, so you can use Bootstrap’s utility classes to customize things like colors, text, borders, etc.

card(
  card_header(
    class = "bg-dark",
    "A header"
  ),
  card_body(
    markdown("Some text with a [link](https://github.com)")
  )
)

A header

Some text with a link

Implicit `card_body()`

If you find yourself using card_body() without changing any of its defaults, consider dropping it altogether since any direct children of card() that aren’t “known” card() items, are wrapped together into an implicit card_body() call.¹ For example, the code to the right generates HTML that is identical to the previous example:

card(
  card_header(
    class = "bg-dark",
    "A header"
  ),
  markdown("Some text with a [link](https://github.com).")
)

A header

Some text with a link.

Restricting growth

By default, a card()’s size grows to accommodate the size of it’s contents. Thus, if a card_body() contains a large amount of text, tables, etc., you may want to specify a height or max_height. That said, when laying out multiple cards, it’s likely best not to specify height on the card(), and instead, let the layout determine the height layout_column_wrap().

Although scrolling is convenient for reducing the amount of space required to park lots of content, it can also be a nuisance to the user. To help reduce the need for scrolling, consider pairing scrolling with full_screen = TRUE (which adds an icon to expand the card’s size to the browser window). Notice how, when the card is expanded to full-screen, max_height/height won’t effect the full-screen size of the card.

card(
  max_height = 250,
  full_screen = TRUE,
  card_header(
    "A long, scrolling, description"
  ),
  lorem::ipsum(paragraphs = 3, sentences = 5)
)

A long, scrolling, description

Adipiscing proin pharetra; metus feugiat fermentum malesuada condimentum dapibus, laoreet orci nam. Magnis sed, nulla mus consequat; vehicula purus nisi. Aliquet mauris mi rutrum donec, scelerisque donec mus nullam viverra justo. Non nisl est penatibus nascetur nascetur donec – iaculis nulla ut justo turpis nascetur! Mi orci a, vivamus id neque fringilla, cras primis enim.

Lorem in sapien primis libero suscipit vitae pharetra vel. Mattis cum velit ultrices; platea quisque donec habitant aliquet. Sapien convallis ornare sed cras sagittis at cras est magnis tempor enim. Lacus massa consequat, feugiat, scelerisque nulla eros libero tortor magnis eleifend. Lacus duis accumsan nullam mauris habitasse vitae integer turpis quis, ante penatibus, facilisis felis dis.

Ipsum curabitur dictumst cum mollis. At erat vulputate mollis in, vestibulum quam tellus iaculis eros. Turpis varius at ac luctus congue pulvinar cubilia. Diam elementum sagittis class, habitasse placerat pretium, natoque eu per. Natoque libero magna integer risus neque ligula hendrerit dictumst, platea – egestas tempus, lectus lacus sollicitudin orci tristique parturient commodo consequat.

Filling outputs

A card()’s default behavior is optimized for facilitating filling layouts. More specifically, if a fill item (e.g., plotly_widget), appears as a direct child of a card_body(), it resizes to fit the card()s specified height. This means, by specifying height = 250 we’ve effectively shrunk the plot’s height from its default of 400 down to about 200 pixels. And, when expanded to full_screen, the plot grows to match the card()’s new size.

card(
  height = 250,
  full_screen = TRUE,
  card_header("A filling plot"),
  card_body(plotly_widget)
)

A filling plot

Most htmlwidgets (e.g., plotly, leaflet, etc) and some other Shiny output bindings (e.g, plotOutput(), imageOutput(), etc) are fill items by default, so this behavior “just works” in those scenarios. And, in some of these situations, it’s helpful to remove card_body()’s padding, which can be done via spacing & alignment utility classes.

card(
  height = 275,
  full_screen = TRUE,
  card_header("A filling map"),
  card_body(
    class = "p-0",
    leaflet_widget
  ),
  card_footer(
    class = "fs-6",
    "Copyright 2023 RStudio, PBC"
  )
)

A filling map

Fill item(s) aren’t limited in how much they grow and shrink, which can be problematic when a card becomes very small. To work around this, consider adding a min_height on the card_body() container. For example, try using the handle on the lower-right portion of this card example to make the card taller/smaller.

This interactive example is a bit contrived in that we’re using CSS resize to demonstrate how to make plots that don’t shrink beyond a certain point, but this concept becomes quite useful when implementing page-level filling layouts (i.e., page_fillable()) with multiple cards.

card(
  height = 300,
  style = "resize:vertical;",
  card_header("Plots that grow but don't shrink"),
  card_body(
    min_height = 250,
    plotly_widget,
    plotly_widget
  )
)

Plots that grow but don't shrink

Troubleshooting fill

As you’ll learn more about in filling layouts, a fill item loses its ability to fill when wrapped in additional UI element that isn’t a fillable container. To fix the situation, use as_fill_carrier() to allow the additional element to carry the potential to fill from the card_body() down to the fill item.

Multiple `card_body()`

A card() can have multiple card_body()s, which is especially useful for:

Combining both resizable and non-resizable contents (i.e., fill items and non-fill).
Allowing each card_body() to have their own styling (via inline styles and/or utility classes) and resizing limits (e.g., min_height).

For example, when pairing filling output with scrolling content, you may want min_height on the filling output since the scrolling content will force it to shrink:

card(
  height = 375,
  full_screen = TRUE,
  card_header(
    "Filling plot, scrolling description"
  ),
  card_body(
    min_height = 200,
    plotly_widget
  ),
  card_body(
    class = "lead container",
    lorem::ipsum(paragraphs = 10, sentences = 5)
  )
)

Filling plot, scrolling description

Adipiscing curabitur dui diam ligula morbi. Feugiat massa habitant hac urna facilisis; vehicula sagittis, posuere laoreet primis, per pretium! Feugiat nostra posuere platea parturient potenti, ante nisi nisi. Volutpat ornare etiam ut consequat mattis ante nisi risus! Eleifend quis nostra nulla mi nascetur imperdiet est diam per torquent, rutrum, duis proin dignissim.

Adipiscing facilisi massa metus ultrices urna a eleifend curae. Aptent primis scelerisque orci sed feugiat fames primis habitasse varius habitant. Nulla arcu nostra sed tortor; et, metus sodales aenean. Quis hac potenti nascetur, ultricies volutpat condimentum viverra nulla sem! Eu justo, sociis dignissim augue aptent ac aliquet.

Dolor urna volutpat egestas posuere cursus condimentum mattis vulputate sodales pulvinar! Nunc quisque tortor pharetra pellentesque luctus nibh dignissim class! Etiam diam cubilia; quam convallis; et ullamcorper facilisis feugiat enim varius. Hac ornare purus fames volutpat ultricies, per facilisis consequat – pellentesque egestas est auctor consequat nulla? Na nulla?

Dolor risus at – egestas sociis ultrices taciti, per, convallis, faucibus quam mollis? Suspendisse cursus conubia – ligula lacinia parturient placerat tristique; justo aliquet ac nulla? Lacinia malesuada purus donec sodales nisi duis dui lectus. Sodales viverra per laoreet potenti sem sagittis fusce, id semper himenaeos quisque, placerat phasellus odio. Netus faucibus orci mus eleifend tempor nullam imperdiet nascetur?

Adipiscing habitasse urna non pellentesque fringilla; sociosqu fames, cum risus euismod ligula! Hac scelerisque commodo curae ac metus quam iaculis. Velit sociosqu cras himenaeos ligula mi; aenean pellentesque; massa nascetur dui mauris hendrerit. A iaculis nulla vel: donec etiam sollicitudin hac mus, penatibus euismod congue. Na congue.

Ipsum nisl libero tincidunt facilisi fusce mus accumsan luctus. Imperdiet ligula hac sagittis dapibus praesent elementum consequat sem. Consequat per taciti habitant nam donec arcu erat: ante inceptos ante dui nulla integer. Nam netus mollis malesuada suspendisse vivamus dui, risus sollicitudin ullamcorper fermentum sociis – maecenas vulputate. Ultricies est platea leo!

Adipiscing in tristique vehicula – consequat nulla arcu proin natoque ultricies lacus commodo. Elementum pretium, risus quisque et habitant venenatis per eget tincidunt. Suspendisse sociosqu vel sollicitudin cursus eget maecenas? Volutpat sagittis magna turpis nisi – aliquam mus auctor nullam eget leo elementum nisi? Hac aenean arcu eros primis urna dictumst viverra.

Elit sociosqu purus mus nullam, tempus: bibendum sodales ut cras. Mollis euismod lobortis convallis feugiat, integer tristique dignissim faucibus iaculis quam. Ullamcorper euismod malesuada rhoncus fames habitant: ultricies hendrerit sapien ad hendrerit cubilia. Dignissim hac magna augue potenti quisque mi posuere sociosqu est. Na est.

Elit porta rutrum ante orci sociis vel bibendum habitasse integer dapibus ut. Blandit tortor porttitor laoreet duis pretium. Sodales luctus curae non, eleifend lectus: ac erat lobortis at venenatis? At sem tempor conubia et inceptos nunc. Dis vehicula bibendum sed facilisis dui congue fames, mus at, diam placerat nibh cum vivamus.

Lorem purus tellus justo pharetra lacinia – interdum accumsan est. Habitant mollis curabitur semper magnis auctor nullam nec feugiat, platea pulvinar enim netus. Himenaeos ornare faucibus litora pellentesque lacus fames lacinia porta duis praesent? Blandit mattis hendrerit sed: dictum, conubia cras viverra et praesent turpis aptent. Dictumst nullam donec suscipit vulputate aliquam pulvinar tristique.

Also, when the content has a fixed size, and should not be allowed to scroll, set fill = FALSE:

card(
  height = 350,
  full_screen = TRUE,
  card_header(
    "Filling plot, short description"
  ),
  plotly_widget,
  card_body(
    fill = FALSE,
    card_title("A subtitle"),
    p(class = "text-muted", "And a caption")
  )
)

Filling plot, short description

A subtitle

And a caption

Multiple columns

As you’ll learn in column-based layouts, layout_column_wrap() is great for multi-column layouts that are responsive and accommodate for filling output. Here we have an equal-width 2-column layout using width = 1/2, but it’s also possible to have varying column widths.

card(
  height = 350,
  full_screen = TRUE,
  card_header("A multi-column filling layout"),
  card_body(
    min_height = 200,
    layout_column_wrap(
      width = 1/2,
      plotOutput("p1"),
      plotOutput("p2")
    )
  ),
  lorem::ipsum(paragraphs = 3, sentences = 5)
)

A multi-column filling layout

Adipiscing congue, penatibus rutrum sollicitudin sagittis donec potenti lacus consequat. Ultricies mi maecenas dignissim malesuada eros id, malesuada vulputate: ad euismod odio? Dis taciti bibendum commodo auctor id magnis condimentum. Justo sodales nulla viverra sed class hendrerit quis dictum. Erat fames maecenas porta rhoncus egestas commodo orci, odio platea, ultrices neque magnis.

Lorem sollicitudin lacus a odio sollicitudin sodales congue turpis turpis placerat porttitor. Justo porta egestas pellentesque commodo purus magnis, metus lacinia! Suspendisse a elementum, sem maecenas volutpat sociosqu mus sociosqu ullamcorper. Hac sem curabitur sapien; turpis sociosqu. Ultrices per curae fusce magna feugiat viverra interdum cum bibendum cursus, ridiculus in morbi leo neque, pharetra ac, bibendum torquent leo dapibus.

Elit tempus eros scelerisque facilisi, bibendum nibh, semper sociosqu odio mauris ut. Felis vitae ut semper convallis eros dignissim elementum, sollicitudin morbi! Porttitor viverra hendrerit pretium vulputate, proin, torquent, class et nullam convallis. Sodales habitasse ornare non vehicula euismod. Et nascetur et inceptos velit.

Multiple cards

layout_column_wrap() is especially nice for laying out multiple cards since each card in a particular row will have the same height (by default). Learn more in column-based layouts.

layout_column_wrap(
  width = 1/2,
  height = 300,
  card(full_screen = TRUE, card_header("A filling plot"), plotly_widget),
  card(full_screen = TRUE, card_header("A filling map"), card_body(class = "p-0", leaflet_widget))
)

A filling plot

A filling map

Multiple tabs

navset_card_tab() and navset_card_pill() make it possible to create cards with multiple tabs or pills. These functions have the same full_screen capabilities as normal card()s as well some other options like title (since there is no natural place for a card_header() to be used). Note that, each nav_panel() object is similar to a card(). That is, if the direct children aren’t already card items (e.g., card_title()), they get implicitly wrapped in a card_body().

library(leaflet)
navset_card_tab(
  height = 450,
  full_screen = TRUE,
  title = "HTML Widgets",
  nav_panel(
    "Plotly",
    card_title("A plotly plot"),
    plotly_widget
  ),
  nav_panel(
    "Leaflet",
    card_title("A leaflet plot"),
    leaflet_widget
  ),
  nav_panel(
    shiny::icon("circle-info"),
    markdown("Learn more about [htmlwidgets](http://www.htmlwidgets.org/)")
  )
)

HTML Widgets

Plotly
Leaflet

A plotly plot

A leaflet plot

Learn more about htmlwidgets

Sidebars

As you’ll learn more about in sidebar layouts, layout_sidebar() just works when placed inside in a card(). In this case, if you want fill items (e.g., plotly_widget) to still fill the card like we’ve seen before, you’ll need to set fillable = TRUE in layout_sidebar().

card(
  height = 300,
  full_screen = TRUE,
  card_header("A sidebar layout inside a card"),
  layout_sidebar(
    fillable = TRUE,
    sidebar = sidebar(
      actionButton("btn", "A button")
    ),
    plotly_widget
  )
)

A sidebar layout inside a card

Static images

card_image() makes it easy to embed static (i.e., pre-generated) images into a card. Provide a URL to href to make it clickable. In the case of multiple card_image()s, consider laying them out in multiple cards with layout_column_wrap() to produce a grid of clickable thumbnails.

card(
  height = 300,
  full_screen = TRUE,
  card_image(
    file = "shiny-hex.svg",
    href = "https://github.com/rstudio/shiny"
  ),
  card_body(
    fill = FALSE,
    card_title("Shiny for R"),
    p(
      class = "fw-light text-muted",
      "Brought to you by RStudio."
    )
  )
)

Shiny for R

Brought to you by RStudio.

Flexbox

Both card() and card_body() default to fillable = TRUE (that is, they are CSS flexbox containers), which works wonders for facilitating filling outputs, but it also leads to surprising behavior with inline tags (e.g., actionButton(), span(), strings, etc). Specifically, each inline tag is placed on a new line, but in a “normal” layout flow (fillable = FALSE), inline tags render inline.

card(
  card_body(
    fillable = TRUE,
    "Here's some", tags$i("inline"), "text",
    actionButton("btn1", "A button")
  ),
  card_body(
    fillable = FALSE,
    "Here's some", tags$i("inline"), "text",
    actionButton("btn2", "A button")
  )
)

Here's some inline text

That said, sometimes working in a flexbox layout is quite useful, even when working with inline tags. Here we leverage flexbox’s gap property to control the spacing between a plot, a (full-width) button, and paragraph. Note that, by using markdown() for the paragraph, it wraps the results in a <p> tag, which means the contents of the paragraph are not longer subject to flexbox layout. If we wanted, we could do something similar to render the actionButton() inline by wrapping it in a div().

card(
  height = 325, full_screen = TRUE,
  card_header("A plot with an action links"),
  card_body(
    class = "gap-2 container",
    plotly_widget,
    actionButton(
      "go_btn", "Action button",
      class = "btn-primary rounded-0"
    ),
    markdown("Here's a _simple_ [hyperlink](https://www.google.com/).")
  )
)

A plot with an action links

Here's a simple hyperlink.

In addition to gap, flexbox has really nice ways of handling otherwise difficult spacing and alignment issues. And, thanks to Bootstrap’s flex utility classes, we can easily opt-in and customize defaults.

card(
  height = 300, full_screen = TRUE,
  card_header(
    class = "d-flex justify-content-between",
    "Centered plot",
    checkboxInput("check", " Check me", TRUE)
  ),
  card_body(
    class = "align-items-center",
    plotOutput("id", width = "75%")
  )
)

Centered plot

Check me

Shiny

Since this article is statically rendered, the examples here use statically rendered content/widgets, but the same card() functionality works for dynamically rendered content via Shiny (e.g., plotOutput(), plotlyOutput(), etc).

An additional benefit that comes with using shiny is the ability to use getCurrentOutputInfo() to render new/different content when the output container becomes large enough, which is particularly useful with card(full_screen = T, ...). For example, you may want additional captions/labels when a plot is large, additional controls on a table, etc (see the value boxes article for a clever use of this).

# UI logic
ui <- page_fluid(
  card(
    max_height = 200,
    full_screen = TRUE,
    card_header("A dynamically rendered plot"),
    plotOutput("plot_id")
  )
)

# Server logic
server <- function(input, output, session) {
  output$plot_id <- renderPlot({
    info <- getCurrentOutputInfo()
    if (info$height() > 600) {
      # code for "large" plot
    } else {
      # code for "small" plot
    }
  })
}

shinyApp(ui, server)

Appendix

The following CSS is used to give plotOutput() a background color; it’s necessary here because this documentation page is not actually hooked up to a Shiny app, so we can’t show a real plot.

.shiny-plot-output {
  background-color: #216B7288;
  height: 400px;
  width: 100%;
}